Asian/American Labor: Past, Present, and Future

Catalog description

This interdisciplinary seminar will explore the role of labor in the making of Asian America. Much of the course will connect the past to the present, paying close attention to historical analyses and community-engaged research on racial capitalism. Through close readings and film screenings, we will discuss the ways in which Asian/American working people have organized, resisted, created, and mobilized from the bottom-up, challenging their bosses and the state. How have Asian/American workers shaped, pushed back against, and transformed New York? How can we understand racial formation and migration in New York’s labor movements? And what about transnational contexts? Together, we will consider how a workplace is a reflection of city, state, and global politics, identify low-wage working conditions, and analyze labor activists’ strategies for systemic change.